Independence Day

The week preceding my South Dakota vacation (likely Monday, October 28 or thereabouts) a couple of economic news feeds caught my attention with some pre-election chatter.   

Equity, fixed income and currency markets were beginning to signal a Trump win.  

With that I thought to myself:  Election too close to call.  Bad news for Team Harris.  All of which was confirmed Wednesday morning November 6.  Donald Trump had won both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

With this came a big mandate for change.  And a bit of relief for me about something long in the making and now confirmed.  The party of Ronald Reagan was dead.  I take no joy in its passing; only relief in that it is now over and done with.

As a general rule my opinions about Donald Trump have reflected that I do not think very much of him as a person.  Nothing in this recent election outcome has changed that view.  His exhortations invalidate everything I have been taught about how to live my life and everything I've imparted to my daughter about being kind, generous, loving your neighbor, being accepting, showing understanding, empathy, being truthful, ethical, sensible and levelheaded.  Not being a bully, selfish and an asshole.

There is a reasonably good possibility that about half the people reading this would tell me that they like Trump because he says what's on his mind, he tells it like he sees it and doesn't have a filter.  Well, sometimes it's OK to have a filter.  There was a time, not so long ago, when being an asshole wasn't cool.  If you were a shitty person and kept it to yourself, society was a better place because of it. 

I am the product of a lifetime of unintentional, prior influences and imprints.  Dig deep enough into my implicit biases and you'll likely catch a whiff of cold war.  So, get over it. 

In 2016 I considered Donald Trump to be a goof and a joke; not to be taken seriously.  While my life got along swimmingly with his policies during the first three years of his administration all of that changed with the COVID shit show of 2020.  In over his head, by the time the election rolled-around more than enough people had enough of the drama that I believe it cost him the election.

2024 was different.  In a disciplined fashion Donald Trump tapped-into working class anxieties and resentment over inflation and the general economy.  It doesn't matter a lick if I feel my world is doing better if a plurality of my countrymen do not. I've learned to be cognizant of this.  I can do better.  We can do better.

Donald Trump won the White House, the Senate and the House.  The Trifecta.  SCOTUS is icing on the cake.  Donald Trump is no goof or joke.  He brought home the first popular vote win for the GOP in two decades.  He is the real deal. He expanded the GOP base to broadly include a meaningful number of minority voters.  He deserves a great deal of credit for that.  Consequently, he has a ginormous mandate for change and an abundance of goodwill.

Speaking of which, political parties undergo generational change.  And my generation has been shuffled aside as there is no place or role for us any longer in what was previously known at the Party of Reagan.  Social media has been fertile ground for fourth grade caliber ridicule.  Being derisively called a NeoCon is apparently a new pejorative.  Who knew? 

None of the foregoing amounts to much.  Sticks and stones.  It is the loss of friends and acquaintances who have excommunicated one another over perceived grievances that is the real tragedy.  Perhaps this will heal with the passage of time.  We'll see.

In the fourth paragraph of this post I alluded to a feeling of relief.  A consequence of the election outcome is being relieved of the burden of party.  Doesn't matter which party either.  I'm done rolling that boulder up the hill.  I'm basking in the warming glow of something I find strangely liberating; and it is not my laptop.  My newfound independence is a second chance to look at the world with a clean slate.  Independence Day has come to November 6.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try to stand for something other than our base instincts. I'm capable of better.  Donald Trump won fair and square and there wasn't even a whiff of political violence as a consequence.  That speaks volumes.  So, I'm going to sit on my hands for a bit and wait for detailed policy proscriptions to materialize.  You know, stuff that will improve your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place.

Bring it on....

Revisionist History

Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) has described the January 6 riot and assault on the Capitol and the  mob's breaching of the building as a "normal tourist visit.”

I do quite a bit of traveling and am a tourist.  I've been to Washington DC multiple times.  Nothing like this would have entered my head. 

Sure, those who broke-down doors, busted windows, assaulted law enforcement officers, defecated on the carpeting or engaged in violence or committed other crimes were charged and prosecuted accordingly.  Some of the participants of this event got a ticket for trespassing.  The rest got nothing at all.

I'm sure some people will celebrate rebellion and violence against others today.  In a free society you can hold that belief system.  I would counsel against acting on it.

Most people know that if someone hosts a riot, the smart choice is to run the other way.....

 

Report Card

Exhausted by the blistering pace of governing our House of Representatives have now beaten it out of town for a much-deserved three week vacation.

After a year at the legislative grindstone the 118th Congress passed a total of 22 bills into law making this the least productive legislative session since 1931.  Of course the 1931 congress was only in session for the month of December.  

It is entirely possible that no Congress in our nation's long and storied history has spent so much time accomplishing so little as this one.

Congratulations.

Noteable Quoteable

Jake Texeira is white, male, christian and antiwar.  That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.  And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more.  Ask yourself who is the real enemy?

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R- GA). - Member of the Homeland Security Committee

Hostage Taking

My congressional representative, Mike Gallagher, is the incoming chair of the House Select China Committee.  Yesterday he was unable to meet with Gen. Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs in a SCIF because he's not yet officially a member of Congress.

Yup, he's a returning representative, but the House isn't officially in place because a handful of asshats who have no interest in governing won't vote to support Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker.

The net result is Gallagher doesn't have the requisite permission to see or discuss classified materials.  Their childish moving of the goalposts means my guy doesn't have the security clearance to do the people's work.

Suppose there is a national emergency or crisis?

Hold these hostage-takers responsible for bad outcomes.

Sheesh.....

Postmortem

The last, larger, organized deer camp wrapped-up yesterday and by the time you are reading this my former business partner and her ten-year-old son will have left to return home.

I don't normally wax-philosophical about deer camp but indulge me.  This is the postmortem.

This year the plan was to host a normal camp.  With all of the eating, drinking, socializing, yuks and close-quarters living arrangement upstairs on the second floor. 

With COVID variants cropping-up and case counts climbing as everyone at our latitude began to move indoors on the advice of three medical doctors I figured it prudent to ask everyone wishing to stay here to be vaccinated.  All of the docs agreed that vaxxing is never a sure thing, but considering the lodging arrangements and abundant co-morbidities among my circle of hunting pals and their families being vaccinated reduced probabilities of bad outcomes like community spread.

The hunting part had few, if any, risks as hunting from an outdoor deer stand is about as socially-distanced as you can get.

Sleeping multiple individuals to a room and shared bathrooms - not so much.

Small group bow hunting basically fell off the cliff altogether.  A consequence of the vaccine request, scheduling conflicts and me.  The only weekend I had to pull it-off had to be cancelled due to a last minute conflict for a small non-profit I head.  I was the asshole on that and will not allow it to repeat.  There will be more small group bow hunting in 2022. 

The gun opener had some difficulties too.  As a consequence of the vax request one hunter socially distanced for drinks and meals and lodged off-site.  One hunter was pissed about the unvaxxed individual breathing HIS air, gave me a lecture on the subject and went home early.  Two of our group stayed home altogether.

I'm not making a political display over any of this - I'm just following the best medical guidance I have at my disposal and follow best practices under difficult conditions.  Moreover, I cannot please everyone.  

Does that make me an asshole? 

On balance, it was a successful camp - seven deer on the old meat pole.  And everyone that attended and stayed to the end had a terrific time.  Perhaps the future will bring less vaccine hesitancy and less spread of disease and a real return to normal.

This past weekend was actually a resounding success.  A small group of vaccinated adults, good food, adult beverages, plenty of yuks, five dead deer on the old meat pole AND a ten-year-old hunter got his first deer!  

No drama.  No assholery.

And things seemed a wee bit less rushed with fewer hunters traipsing all over the landscape.  It just doesn't get much better that that.  I think next year I'll invite my pal Smokey Joe and his kid to join us for the December antlerless hunt.  That would be fun. 

In conclusion that amounts to twelve deer this year with some additional hunting for me and anyone that wants to show and follow the guidelines.

I should also point out that if the hieroglyphic tally on the old meat pole is to be believed (and I have no reason not to believe it) in the past five years we've witnessed a total of 69 dead deer hung from its pullies.  That is impressive.

I'd like to raise a toast to Wisconsin's top big game species - Odocoileus virginianus - the whitetail deer.  And my hunting friends too.

 

Contemporary Republican Role Models

Once upon a time there was a blogger who identified as a Republican.  As time passed he gravitated to independent and remained firmly center-right.  And if you got to know him you would learn that he holds any number of conservative views. 

Alas, there is no longer any room for this blogger in what had previously been known as the GOP’s Big Tent.  Just like a rock-ribbed conservative like Liz Cheney – those who cling to truth and justice are no longer welcome.  Only craven sycophants who express the utmost of fealty to Donald Trump are allowed. 

And in the mean time the up and coming and most admired in the party includes lying, conspiracy-addled kooks like Marjorie Taylor Greene who falsely assert that Donald Trump was elected in a landslide but the election had been stolen from him. 

And creepy perverts like Matt Gaetz with an unsavory sexual appetite for pubescent girls. (Someone needs to remind him what the minimum mandatory sentence is for sex-trafficking). 

And then there is the candidate Trump is backing to unseat Liz Cheney – Anthony Bouchard. The guy who knocked-up a 14 year-old, married her and divorced her driving her to suicide. 

The virtues that made America great include: humility, equality, justice, charity, generosity, fairness, truth, honor, respect, civility, anti-authoritarianism and so-forth. None of which exists in today's Republican party.  

It sure ain't your daddy's GOP anymore.  What a pitiable collection of role models.....  

Delving into the Divide

There's a great deal to be digested when considering the chaotic nature of Donald Trump’s presidency. 

His economic protectionism, proto-fascist proclivities and impulsiveness give some of us pause.  Policy by tweet has been a steep learning curve.  The nicknames are juvenile.  Anyone who dyes their skin orange is very insecure, a narcissist or has got to have a screw loose.  Maybe all of the above? 

And for sure if someone like John Kasich or Mitt Romney were president the economy would be performing better, relations with our global allies would be settled, trade would be free and fair, manufacturing and farming on the uptick, Putin would be put in his place and there would be little - if any - distracting drama.  Our deficit might not have exploded either. 

Nevertheless, as of this date Trump has had little direct impact upon my day-to-day life.  Moreover, I am unconvinced he is an immediate threat to democracy or the constitutional order.  Don’t take my word for it – read your history.  

What I do know is this.  He is a grifter, a con man, a skirt-chasing draft dodger and a habitual liar.  He has likely laundered money for Russian mobsters and oligarchs in his life before public office.  He has brought economic harm to hard-working people that believed he would deliver for them.  And he's been impeached.  How history treats him in the long run many of us may not live long enough to know. 

For the present I'll settle on a garden-variety asshole.

If Only the Dead Could Talk

I have no interest in over-analyzing - my simple observation is this.

My father landed at Utah Beach as an infantry replacement to liberate Continent Europe from the yoke and atrocities committed under the of Nazi occupation. He survived the breakout from the Norman hedgerows, the dash across northern France – with the 47th Inf. Reg. the first American unit to liberate Belgium. By the end of September he was recuperating in England from wounds suffered by Nazi shelling.

He survived the horror and returned home to raise a family – including me. Many of his comrades paid the full measure of devotion and rest in American cemeteries across Europe.

Dad never carried a grudge against the Germans or Germany. He was a civilian employee of the US Army in Germany following the war and I happen to have been born there.

To see goose-stepping torchbearers waving flags with a swastika in America has got me scratching my head. If dad was alive today he might tell you this is nothing less than pissing on the graves of the dead.

I wonder what the dead would have to say about homegrown American Nazis?

A-Hole

Backside of a westbound dog.

 click on the rectum to enlarge